Thursday, May 11, 2017

Kavod Hashem Oral Hygiene And The Penalty Box

About two days ago I had a question that I had never thought of [ELCHONON EHRMAN!! FIVE MINUTES IN THE GRAMMAR PENALTY BOX FOR ENDING A SENTENCE WITH A PREPOSITION!!!]. 

If one wants to brush one's teeth after a meal, should it be done before bentching or after? I pondered the question and decided that since one is obligated to bentch, nothing else should be done before. Zrizim Makdimin!

The poskim say that after one relieves himself, Asher Yatzar should ideally be said immediately even though he has a lot more time to say it [some say a half hour - a Ritva if I recall - some say 72 minutes and others say until the next time he has to go]. I though that the same should apply to bentching. 

Then in a strike of Divine intervention, I was reading a new sefer about the life and times of Rav Shmuel Rozovsky, the legendary Rosh Yeshiva of Ponivitch, from whose well I have clenched many a thirst, and it was related that he would be makpid to brush his teeth BEFORE bentching. How can someone go before Hashem with a dirty mouth??!

I am actually embarrassed that I didn't have that hergesh....